Flexible knife mounting for bean snippers



3 Sheets-Sheet 1 A mt-#733 'JWIJF. if?

Mav 15, 1945. c E. KE RR FLEXIBLE KNIFE MOUNTING FOR BEAN SNIPPERS Flled May 14 1945 May 15, 1945. c. E. KERR 2,376,062

FLEXIBLE KNIFE MOUNTING FOR BEAN SNIPPERS Filed May 14, 1945 s Sheets-Sheet 2 m M a uw Mn 7 w N AWN MM k \w w u \n mm. u r Q. Q WI P l NW w L fix Q FI Q \Qe a I. w. I Ha v 11%. I I v k E mwm & V J PM VINYL o I] I O O M [I I o o m O I! III 5 I! Q \HH m May 15, 1945.

c. E. KERR FLEXIBLE KNIFE MOUNTING FOR BEAN sNIPPERs Filed May 14, 1943 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 15:, 1945 FLEXIBLE KNIFE MOUNTING FOR BEAN SNIPPERS Charles E. Kerr, Hoopeston, 111., assignor to Food Machinery Corporation, San Jose, .Calif., a corporation of Delaware Application May 14, 1943, Serial No. 486,997

1 Claim.

This invention relates to bean snipping machines, that is, machines used in canneries for snipping the ends off of string beans in preparing these for canning.

A type of bean snipping machine in common I use includes a drum with a cylindrical shell, in which are provided a large number of closelyspaced perforations, and against the outer surface of which one or more knives are pressed. When the beans are placed in the drum and the latter rotated, ends of the beans project through Itis an object of the present invention to pro vide a snipping machinein which the snipping knives conform to the surface of the drum shell in spite of longitudinal deviations from a true cylinder in the outer surface of the latter.

While heretofore snippers have been provided with flexible knives, it has been the practice where deviations as aforementioned occurred in the contour of the drum shell, to shift the entire mounting of the knife towards the shellso as to greatly increase the tension between the knife and the shell and thus cause the knife to substantially conform to the deviations in the shell. This practice, however, has resulted in excessive wear of the knife and the shell and substantially decreased the operative life of the machine.

It is another object of my invention, therefore,

to provide a bean snipping machine in which the knives conform to the irregularities in the longitudinal contour of the drum shell without causing excessive wear of the knives or the drum.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing objects, as well as further objects and advantages,

will-be made. manifest in the following description taken-in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a bean snipping machine in .which'is incorporated a preferred embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged plan view of one of the knife devices of the bean snipping machine shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. v

Fig. 41s a fragmentary View at a decreased scale taken on the line 4--4 of Fig. 3 and illustrating how the invention operates in maintaining a cutting edge of a knife in conformity with the irregular surface of the drum shell of the machine.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated therein is incorporated in a bean shipper l having a frame H having bearings I2 in which are mounted trunnions [3 of a tiltable gimbal l4 having bearings at its ends which rotatably support a drum I6 having a shell I1. The bearings l5 are provided with suitable openings one of which is fitted with a hopper through which string beans may be admitted into the drum It. The drum I6 is tiltable by rocking the gimbal [4, so as to discharge a snipped batch of beans from the drum l6 into a hopper having a bean elevator 26 which delivers the beans to a conveyor and sorting table 21.

The shell I! is made of relatively light material having formed therein a multiplicity of small frusto-conical perforations 28 through which the ends of beans contained in the drum [6 are adapted to extend. In order to give the maximum room in this drum for beans, the shell i! is preferably unsupported between its opposite ends. These characteristics of the shell I! make it subject to aberrations from a true cylindrical surface.

For one thing, it is the practice, when manufacturing the shell IT, to grind the exterior surface of this with a grinding tool which is fed across the surface of the shell as the latter rotates on its axis. against the shell and the 'pressurethus exerted is often sufficient to flex the shell so that the tool does not cutjas much from the shell as it is supposed to and when the tool has passed a certain area of the shell which has thus yielded that area springs back to'a radius which is greater than that to which the rest of the drum is being ground down. Then the drum is subject to damage during use and to warping when heated for the purpose of making repairs. These and other causes combine to destroy the true cylindrical character of theshell 11.

Provided on the frame H is an electric motor 30, which is connected in a manner well known in the art to the drum l6 through a suitable transmission (not shown) for rotating this drum in the bearings l5.

The snipper I0 is provided with a pair of knife devices and 35. These devices are identical, the only difference being that the device 35 is mounted on base members secured by bolts 4| to the gimbal frame l4 whereas the knife device 36 is mounted in a similar manner on base members provided on the drum bearings I5. A description of the knife device 35 will therefore suffice for both of these devices.

The device 35 has a main angle iron pro The grinding tool must be placed vided with blocks 46 at its opposite ends, these blocks having slots 41 through which cap screws 48 extend to be screwed into suitable threaded holes provided in brackets 50 which are pivoted at their outer ends on base members the latter having set screws 5| by which the inner ends of the brackets 50 may be raised or lowered. Surrounding the cap screws in the slots 4'! are sleeves 52 Which are of suflicient length to prevent the bolt 48 binding on the block and to leave the latter free to shift within the limits provided by the slots 41.

Formed on each bracket is a stud 53 having a horizontal bore 54 through which a threaded bolt 55 slidably extends, this bolt being tapped into a suitable hole provided in the adjacent block 45 (see Fig. 3). By the manipulation of adjustment and lock nuts 56 and 51 on the bolts 55, opposite ends of the angle iron 45 may be shifted inwardly or outwardly from the shell 11. After any such adjustment the nuts 56 and 51, may be set so asv to hold the angle iron 45 in its new adjusted position.

The upper flange 50 of the angle iron 45 is preferably reinforced by a bar 6| Welded thereto andthe upper or mounting edge 62 of av knife 63 is clamped betweenthis bar and a reinforcing strap 64 by a series of spacedbolts 65.

The. knife 63 is preferably a highly flexible blade of high grade steel or bronze or the equivalent and is quite thin so that its lower portion is relatively easily flexed. A, cutting edge 65 is formed along the lower edge of the. knife 63, it being preferable that thisedge be held at all times in contact throughout its length with the outer surface of the cylindrical shell I1.

To accomplish this, the knife 63 has a series of holes 7Q provided therein, these being spaced throughout the length of the. knife. Received in theseholes and threaded through corresponding aligned holes H in the angle iron flange 50 are bolts 15 havingnuts '16 for locking these bolts in suitable adjusted positions in the holes 1|. As will be observed, the heads of the bolts 15 are relatively flatand lie between the knife 63 and the shell ll. Coiled about each of the. bolts 15 between the knife 63 andtheangle iron flange 60 .isacompression spring 80.

The knifedevices 35 and 36 are yieldably held in operative position asabove described by leaf detent springs 90 which may be manually released when it is desired to swing the knife devices outwardly about their pivotal connection withthe base memberson which they are mounted,.as for cleaning and adjusting the knives thereof.

Although no part of this invention, the snipping machine, I0 is provided with a guard plate 95 which. is preferably supported upon the base members 42 (see Fig. 1), the function of this being to shift back into the drum l6 those beans which extend too far through the holes 28 so that the bean. ends uniformly extend only a desired distance through the holes 28 in the shell l1 when these bean ends come in contact with the knives 63.

Operation To operate the shipping machine I0, the drum I6 is rotated by the motor 30 and while it is rotating is charged with string beans fed thereto through the hopper. 25. As the shell I! rotates with the drum It the beans fall downwardly therein. As the angle of the upper surface of the sinooth contact with the outer surface of the shell H, the snipping of the bean ends extending through this portion of the shell either does not take place at all or a clean cut is not made. The dificulty of maintaining this contact between the knives E3 and the shell surface is illustrated in Fig. 4 where. characteristic variations in radius in the shell surface are illustrated. This View also shows that these variations, occur along longitudinal elements of the shell.

In my invention this problem is solved by the action of the. series of spaced individual compression springs holding the knives 63 throughout their length in close shipping contact with the shell IT, in spite of the constant fluctuations in radius of thoseportions of the shell presented to the knives.

' tively light pressure against the knife.

Owing to the provision in my invention of a plurality of separate means applied to the blade to obtain this result, it is not necessary to depend upon the resilience of the blade itself in the knife 63 for producing conformity between this knife and the contour of the cylinder. In fact, it is preferable that the blades of these knives be very supple and responsive to the individual springs so that these springs can press. the cutting edges 86 of the knives 63 into close conformity with the corresponding adjacent sections of theouter surface of the shell I! while exerting only a rela- The desired conformity between the knives and the shell is thus attained without subjecting either to undue wear.

While I have shown only a single embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that vari- 011s modifications may be made therein without departingfrom the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended-claim.

I claim:

Abean shipping machine, comprising: a frame; a rotary shell provided with openings through which the ends of string beans containedwithin said shell may extend; means for rotatably mounting said shell on said frame; a flexible knife substantially parallel with said shell and having a cutting edge and a mounting edge; means for supporting said knife by its mounting edge on said frame with its cutting edge positioned to snip off extending bean ends as said shell rotates, said knife having a plurality. of openings therein spaced longitudinally thereof intermediate its mounting and cutting .edges; a series of bolts provided on saidframe and extending through said openings with the heads of said bolts disposed between said knife and said shell; and .a plurality of expansion springs. coiled aboutv said bolts between said frame andsaid knife, said springs.

separately and yieldably pressing said knife against portions of .said shell respectivelyv adjacent thereto to maintain the cutting edge of said knife in close shaving contact with the Outer surface of said shell throughout the length of ;said knife regardless of local areas of said surface deviating irregularly from a true surface of rotation.

CHARLES E. KERR. 

